Even after Christmas, these trees are still presenting gifts.
The Pasco County Parks, Recreation, and Natural Resources Department sets up its Trees to Trails Program each year, with residents dropping off Christmas trees at various parks around the county.
The program, which runs three weeks and ended on Jan. 11, aims to encourage residents to recycle their trees instead of tossing them in the garbage or, even worse for the community, burning them.
The annual effort typically yields a big haul for the parks department.
The county asks participants to remove the tinsel, if there was any. Then the county chips the trees to provide free mulch at the parks where the trees were dropped off.
“It’s a great program — it’s a great tax-funded program,” said Brian Taylor, the county’s Parks & Recreation Manager. “It actually saves the taxpayers money because it gives the parks some much-needed mulch for landscaping.
“Plus, it smells good (laughs).”
The county set up drop-off sites at Wesley Chapel District Park and Veterans Memorial Park in Hudson.
Peter Grayling, a park operator with the county for 28 years, says the turnout for drop-off was good, especially right after Christmas and at the beginning of 2023.
And, as good as residents were about bringing trees to be recycled, several residents were just as good about hauling some away for personal use.
Those trees weren’t usually taken for mulch.
“The reason why is, well, kind of funny,” Taylor added.
Some residents took a tree or two to create a reef, or new habitat for fish in their ponds or lakes.
Trees are placed upright in parts of the pond that are at least deep enough to cover the trees. That is an approved disposal method by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Conservation Biologists.
Once submerged, sunken trees are great for creating natural fish habitats in local ponds and lakes. Recycled Christmas trees become havens for a variety of freshwater wildlife, including small insects, snails and mussels.
These tiny organisms attract fish who feed on them, like minnows and crawfish, who in turn, attract such species as bass, bluegill and crappie.
One tree can become an entire ecosystem with an estimated lifespan of up to 10 years, which is not only great for lake life, but for fishing enthusiasts, too.
“We don’t discourage them from not taking them,” Grayling said. “We know that’s what they’re for, so it’s OK if they do, but we’re not going to be out here stopping them or monitoring.
“If they’re putting them in lakes, that’s recycling them, too.”
In the past, the county used to have more drop-off sites, but scaled back to have two centralized locations: one for East and Central Pasco and another for West Pasco.
It wasn’t, however, because the county saw a decrease in tree piles, not from people using them in lakes, but from people switching to artificial trees.
“We really haven’t seen a difference in the time we’ve been doing it, even going back how many years we can go back,” Taylor said. “Every year, there are plenty of trees brought to us, and every year we end up with plenty of mulch.
“From the county’s point of view, we’re just glad we can do our part and recycle the trees, in an environmentally friendly way, every year.”
Published January 18, 2023
